Thanks for posting this topic, I think it's a good one, and it's important to keep hammering away.
Yesterday, I wrote a letter to the Editor of the Akron Beacon-Journal in response to their editorial Friday; we'll see if they print it in Sunday's paper
Their Editorial:
Last Laugh: The challenge to Ohio presidential vote reaches its absurd conclusionEditors:
Did you and I watch the same series of speeches on Thursday? Time and time again, I heard members of both the House and Senate stand up on behalf of the many Ohioans and other Americans who were disenfrancised during the 2004 election; that the intent of the objection was not to complain about the outcome, but to bring attention to the myriad disturbing and unexplained oddities that occured statewide before, during, and after Election Day as well as the many ethically and legally questionable moves by a Secretary of State who is indeed already using his success as State Co-Chair of the Re-Elect Bush campain to solicit funds for his own Gubernatorial run. There are many examples in Rep. John Conyer's Judiciary Committe status report on the irregularities in Ohio. Incidents were reported within the pages of your newspaper and in newspapers around the state. Why, in your very own newspaper on Friday, October 29th, I read of the Summit Board of Elections rejecting nearly 1,000 challenges to registered voters in Summit County; the challenges were rejected after it was clear that all challenges came from just four Republican seniors who were simply following a directive they received from a man who called them on behalf of the Republican party. (
article) How many of those nearly 1,000 people found out their challenges were rejected and they were indeed able to vote on the following Tuesday?
Yet today in your editorial, you tell those nearly 1,000 Summit County residents that Senator Boxer and Representative Tubb Jones were acting "silly" by standing up for them. You tell the untold numbers of Beacon-Journal readers who withstood the waits on that rainy day and your neighbors who had obstacles thrown in their way when they tried to speak on the one day they must know their voice will be heard, Election Day.
I'm proud to say that I was born and reared in Summit County. Although I've moved, I still consider the people of Northeastern Ohio as my neighbors and friends and I still read the online version of the ABJ regularly. I was appalled to read the callouness with which you treated those fellow residents in your editorial today. By denigrating and calling the efforts of the many elected men and women of Congress who stood up yesterday on behalf of their fellow americans "antics", I would suggest that perhaps it is your own Editorial Board who will ultimately will be taken less seriously.